Gronholm's championship lead is back to 10 points after an amazing New Zealand win. (LAT Photo) » More Photos
Title rivals Marcus Gronholm and Sebastien Loeb were never as equally matched as this weekend in New Zealand, when the Finn beat his French rival by just 0.3sec in one of the closest finishes in World Rally Championship history.
The duo swapped the lead three times during the final loop of stages on Sunday morning, with the Ford ace eventually prevailing to further extend his lead in the points standings. In the final stage, the superspecial at Mystery Creek, Loeb took the win by 0.4sec, not enough to offset his rival's 0.7sec lead going in. Gronholm now leads Loeb by 10 markers with five events remaining.
Mikko Hirvonen was third in the second works Ford, while Subaru's Chris Atkinson and Ford privateer Jari Latvala rounded out the top-five.
href=" http://www.racer.com/speedtv" target="_new"> David Phillips profiles Champ Car's breakout star Robert Doornbos in our October issue, on sale now.
